Spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity after wildfires in Montana and Colorado

Increases in runoff and erosion after wildfires are often attributed to the development of hydrophobic soils. The potential for increased overland flow depends on the spatial contiguity of the hydrophobicity as well as its overall strength, but there is limited information on the spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity. We conducted spatially intensive hydrophobicity measurements in 225 m2 and 1 m2 plots in forested areas of Montana and Colorado burned at moderate to high severity, and in unburned control plots. Both the burned and unburned 225 m2 plots contained 10–23 hydrophobic soil patches in which hydrophobicity was strongest at the surface and declined rapidly with depth. The hydrophobic patches were closer together and up to 3 times larger in the burned plots. Consequently, 19% to 76% of the burned plots were hydrophobic compared to just 11% of the unburned plots. In five of the six burned plots, the patches were not laterally connected, suggesting that in most cases Hortonian overland flow generated from hydrophobic patches will infiltrate near its point of origin. The 1 m2 plots were smaller than most of the hydrophobic patches, so they did not capture the spatial characteristics of soil hydrophobicity. Characterization of the spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity should be based on measurements conducted at ∼ 1 m intervals across areas of > 100 m2. Due to the patchiness of soil hydrophobicity at the 100 to 101 meter scale, overland flow measurements in small (∼ 1 m2) plots may overestimate the magnitude and variability of runoff from burned catchments.